November 30th, 2017

In my humble opinion...

sell your horses!

Bitcoin has created a new paradigm of unprecedented scale, and the backlash against it is also unprecedented. "Bubble, "Scam", "Shitcoin", "Scheme", and other derogetories are like "GET A HORSE" laughingly shouted at new owners of the first automobile. People: sell your horses!

Coin of the DayOwn your online data

(CRYPTO: DAT)With the advent of the internet, personal data has grown increasingly valuable to corporations, who often collect and sell data for targeted marketing without our knowledge. While some people like to see advertisements which are relevant to them, most people are outraged about having their personal data gathered and sold. Datum offers a decentralized network on which personal data can be securely stored. Users have to pay for storage of data with DAT tokens and they also have the option to sell their information as well as impose rules on the usage of their data. Datum presents us with the necessary option to safeguard our personal data, and potentially an alternative source of income. We're into it.

What an emotionally exhausting day – from $11,500 to $8,500, our necks are sore from watching the ups and downs of the day. And the media couldn't get enough.

Your coworker. Your classmate. Your mom. Everyone was talking about Bitcoin's price yesterday, after a stellar day of overcoming the $11,000 hurdle (although all prices are now correcting before the next rally). The entire market looked amazing yesterday, and Bitcoin's peak actually coincided with U.S. Futures and world stock's positive performance. One of the disappointments of the day was Coinbase, Bitstamp and Gemini's site crash; a massive missed opportunity for those trying to sell their crypto at the peak of the price surge yesterday afternoon. Coinbase boasts over 10 million users and unsurprisingly saw an "all-time-traffic high" in their site traffic soon after hitting $11k. The exchanges were quick to schedule site maintenance; the mainstream adoption train is coming in hot, so they better prepare as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Janet Yellen, the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, gave her usual impassioned and thrilling (*sarcasm*) speech about the current economic state of the US. During her speech, Yellen argued that America's immense and growing debt is "the type of thing that should keep people awake at night." If Yellen is correct, the US economy is on shaky ground, and many took her worries as an indirect endorsement of Bitcoin. Whether or not Yellen actually believes in the digital currency, we think you should take a hard look at the numbers and decide for yourself; they're certainly not in favor of fiat. Oh, and we all remember the two boys who crashed Yellen's speech in July and held up a "Buy Bitcoin" sign? Good times.

There are a lot of lawsuits floating around the U.S. involving exchanges and ICOs. And everyone's perceiving them differently.

So, ICYMI, crypto traders aren't always upfront; only 802 American paid their taxes on their Bitcoin gains in 2015 (not the greatest testament to the industry's trustworthiness), and ICOs don't have the cleanest track record when handling fundraised money. In comes the IRS. Earlier this year, they launched a lawsuit against Coinbase, demanding to see personal user information in order to track which consumers are paying their taxes on income garnered from crypto. Here's where it gets weird: yesterday, the IRS drastically shortened the list of users Coinbase is required to provide information about. The list was significantly shortened, by about 97%. Mainstream media has been spinning this as a hit to the digital assets industry, while crypto outlets have taken this as a positive.

Personally, we're a bit worried. The accounts that will be handed over to the IRS are "high volume accounts" – but the qualifying standards to be considered "high volume" are currently unclear. This is a fantastic example as to why people heavily involved with crypto should purchase hardware wallets: a digital device that stores your cryptocurrency offline. This past month, there has been an outcropping of new hardware wallets, such as the Hoofoo or AsicVault, who are competing with other brands favored by long-term crypto enthusiasts (we're looking at you, Ledger).